CervicalCheck Daily Report 16 May 2018

The HSE Serious Incident Management Team has been working to respond to the failings revealed by the CervicalCheck audit. This report is being provided daily to outline and provide a progress update on the response to this evolving situation.

1. Contact with women directly affected

Hospitals have been working since the SIMT was established to contact all the women affected and to discuss the audit with them.

Cases where the audit showed their test could have provided a different result:

209 women

Contact made to date with:

205 women /families

Most women have at this stage been contacted and meetings either held or arranged to discuss the audit and the response with them. 18 of the 209 women are deceased and where this is the case their family/next of kin are being contacted.

2. Women diagnosed with cancer but not notified to CervicalCheck

The HSE is working with the National Cancer Registry of Ireland and the Department of Health to identify any other women who had cervical cancer during this time, who may also have had a CervicalCheck test.

HSE will conclude the matching process with the National Cancer Registry in the next week. We will then agree a communication process with the International Expert Panel for those women identified by the National Cancer Registry matching process. These will be the women who have been identified by the National Cancer Registry as having cervical cancer and who have had cytology with the national screening service. This will ensure that the women involved are contacted first.

It is anticipated that the International Expert Panel will be in place towards the end of next week.

3. Contact from women concerned about the CervicalCheck audit

This week women in Ireland have been understandably worried following the failures in communication about this audit. An information line was provided to women from April 28th, and women were offered the facility to receive a call-back from a member of our clinical staff.

Calls Answered

Call back requests

Avg. wait times

28/4

866

744

7:28

29/4

1,076

935

7:06

30/4

1,891

1,725

17:26

1/5

2,109

1,473

2:55

2/5

1,991

1,327

3:40

3/5

1,619

849

0:41

4/5

983

373

0:16

5/5

218

105

0:06

6/5

93

62

0:09

7/5

234

125

0:17

8/5

1262

593

0:18

9/5

947

396

0:11

10/5

838

484

0.46

11/5

1353

776

0.55

12/5

186

120

0.32

13/5

87

39

0.10

14/5

811

297

15/5

1266

443

0.11

16/5

771

158

0.09

Total

18,623

10,824

The service provided on our information line and waiting times continue to improve, but our clinical call team remain extremely busy. Priority for call backs from the clinical team is being given to women with specific clinical queries or a history of cervical cancer.

To date, 7,871 calls have been returned to women, and every effort will continue to be made to ensure that contact is made as quickly as possible with all those who have requested a call back. We have teams working in Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Dublin, and in hospitals right across the country, making contact with all of the women who have requested a call back and answering their queries, with personal health records and advice where appropriate

4. Public Information - Advice and Support for Women

A HSE team has been appointed to co-ordinate the package of supports announced by Government last Friday. The package of services being made available include medical cards, counselling and psychology supports, reimbursement of medicines and treatments, childcare and travel costs and arrangements are being put in place as a matter of urgency.

Every effort is being made to provide information and advice to women who may be concerned. Information and advice for women is being updated on cervicalcheck.ie and is being provided on a range of channels as described below.

The clinical advice is that women who have had normal test results in the past can continue to participate in the cervical screening programme according to their normal schedule.

Women should be directed to cervicalcheck.ie in the first instance for information and advice on what to do.

Visits to CervicalCheck.ie

273,899 since April 26868,964 page views, 24,650 checked the register

Top Sources of traffic to cervicalcheck.ie

Organic searches, direct, social media, paid search, news sites

Video advice for women with normal results

Featuring Dr. Peter McKenna, Consultant Obs/Gynae. Views: 10,229

Featuring Dr. Maitiu O’Tuathail, President of NAGP. Views: 116.8k

Facebook PostsCervicalCheck/HSE

Impressions

Comments on page

Private Messages

12

1.8 million impressions

1588 comments reviewed by HSE Comms

329 all replied to by HSE Comms

Twitter Activity:

71 Tweets since Friday 27th April

426,511 impressions

14,072 engagements

Text messages issued to women who called the Information line

Approx. 7,000 SMS issued May 3

Text message sent to approx. 7,500 people on May 8 apologising for the delay in returning calls

Google Search Ads

210,858 impressions and 25,397 clicks since May 3rd

5. Health Professional Information - Advice and Support for Women

The clinical advice is that women who have had normal test results in the past can continue to participate in the cervical screening programme according to their normal schedule, and women with a history of normal test results are advised to read the information on cervicalcheck.ie and then make contact with their GP if they remain concerned. CervicalCheck has issued an update to GPs and smear-takers participating in the programme, and to colposcopy clinics and cancer centres nationwide.

A further communication issued to all GPs on May 9 advising them of the reimbursement arrangements for women who have requested an additional smear. This along with an updated Q&A is now available on www.cervicalcheck.ie

Information for Colposcopy Clinics and Cancer Centres

Circulated by email May 3

Advice Sheet for Women

Published on www.cervicalcheck.ie and circulated to a wider range of patient and advocacy organisations May 4

Information about the CervicalCheck audit, and advice for anyone concerned is on www.cervicalcheck.ie.